In industries such as transportation and retail, video analysis is often performed using permanent, dedicated systems, e.g. to capture vehicular or pedestrian traffic. In such dedicated systems, video content is captured and stored as one or more video files for analysis or analysed at the source using smart cameras. Ad-hoc solutions also exist, where temporary monitoring stations are put in place to capture the video content. In such ad-hoc solutions video files are captured and stored and then later viewed by personnel who record the data manually. In general, video content or a “video” may refer to any data associated with a sequence of still images or frames representing a scene and a video file may refer to any data structure used to capture, record, store, copy, display, transmit, modify or otherwise process or handle such video content.
A problem with dedicated systems is that many organizations do not need to analyse video content on an ongoing basis and thus having dedicated equipment and personnel is prohibitive. For example, when collecting data for an intersection, one may only be interested in peak times and need to gather this data on a periodic basis such as monthly, quarterly or yearly. Similarly, in retail applications, knowledge of overall customer traffic patterns may only be needed on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis or when floor layouts change etc. Customer line ups may also only be a concern at peak times. Ad-hoc solutions which can be an improvement over dedicated systems because of their flexibility also pose problems because viewing and recording data manually is labour intensive.
In other applications, video surveillance and video analysis are used for reasons such as security concerns, the desire to deter crime and otherwise unwanted behaviour, and the desire to monitor and control an environment among others. Due to the availability of less expensive and more sophisticated equipment, the use of video surveillance and video analysis techniques have become increasingly widespread in many industries. In some cases, complex networks of cameras are being used to monitor large areas such as department stores, traffic zones and entire cities.
Although devices such as smart cameras and the availability of relatively inexpensive data storage make obtaining video content increasingly more attractive, as more and more cameras are added and more and more content is acquired, the processing requirements can become difficult to manage. In many cases, dedicated processing equipment and dedicated personnel are required to perform the necessary processing, which for small organizations can make the adoption of any video analysis step prohibitive. Similar problems can arise in analysing other types of media such as audio and still image photography.
It is therefore an object of the following to obviate or mitigate the above-noted disadvantages.